The all-new Hollywood Reporter offers unprecedented access to the people, studios, networks and agencies that create the magic in Hollywood. Published weekly, the oversized format includes exceptional photography and rich features.
Had the grosses for the first week of Avengers: Infinity War, opening April 27, been included in the 2018 summer tally, domestic revenue would have all but matched the record $4.75 billion collected at the box office in summer 2013. Still, this year’s summer season, kicking off May 4 and wrapping on Labor Day, made a spectacular recovery over 2017, when revenue limped to $3.8 billion, the worst showing in 10 years. Revenue between May 4, 2018, and Sept. 3, 2018, hit nearly $4.4 billion, the biggest year-over-year uptick (14 percent) in two decades and the fifth best of all time, according to comScore. Attendance was up as well, by roughly 10 percent. “This is a substantial rebound,” says John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners. “And…
China Money Fears Global Road’s fall sparks new concerns p. 20 ↑ Legal Depp Dilemma A court victory and “handshake” contracts p. 22 Joana Vicente The Toronto film festival taps the indie producer as exec director and co-head (along with artistic director Cameron Bailey) as the 43rd annual event kicks off. Andy Lack The NBC News chief is again scrutinized over losing Ronan Farrow’s bombshell Harvey Weinstein exposé even as he goes on the offensive by releasing internal records and scathing statements. Colin Kaepernick Despite being sidelined by the NFL, the former star quarterback who inspired national anthem protests becomes a face of Nike’s “Just Do It” anniversary campaign. Rony Abovitz The Magic Leap CEO’s augmented reality headset gets tepid early reviews from critics after years of hype and more…
WINNERS TOM CRUISE His latest Mission: Impossible film earned the actor franchise-best box office, the best Rotten Tomatoes score of his career and high praise for doing risky stunts at the age of 56. DIANE KEATON & CREW Book Club, starring Keaton, Jane Fonda and Candice Bergen, was a sleeper hit, earning $68.6 million in the U.S. Going in Style, likewise appealing to older audiences, topped out at $42 million in the U.S. in 2017. AUGUST Talk about going out with a bang. Thanks to pics including Jon M. Chu’s Crazy Rich Asians, The Meg and Christopher Robin, revenue for the month was up 30 percent over August 2017, when moviegoing cratered. LOSERS MOVIEPASS Facing financial ruin, MoviePass changed its rules in August, restricting the number of movies a patron…
DISNEY/PIXAR Incredibles 2 June 15 Domestic $602.3M International $562.5M Global $1.16B The Incredibles Nov. 5, 2004 Domestic $261.4M International $371.6M Global $633M DISNEY/MARVEL Avengers: Infinity War April 27 Domestic $678.8M International $1.37B Global $2.05B Avengers: Age of Ultron May 1, 2015 Domestic $459M International $964.4M Global $1.41B FOX Deadpool 2 May 18 Domestic $318.4M International $415.6M Global $734.1M Deadpool Feb. 12, 2016 Domestic $362M International $420M Global $783.1M UNIVERSAL Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom June 22 Domestic $415.2M International $885.4M Global $1.30B Jurassic World June 12, 2015 Domestic $652.3M International $1.09B Global $1.67B UNIVERSAL Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again July 20 Domestic $118M International $249.1M Global $367.1M Mamma Mia July 18, 2008 Domestic $144.1M International $465.7M Global $609.8M DISNEY/LUCASFILM Solo: A Star Wars Story May 25 Domestic $213.7M International $179M…
For the first time, documentaries dominated the U.S. summer indie box office, taking up four of the top 10 slots on the top-grossing specialty chart. Morgan Neville’s Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, about the late Fred Rogers, led all specialty titles with $22.5 million, making it one of the top-grossing nonfiction films of all time in the U.S., not adjusted for inflation. RBG, the doc about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, kicked off the action in May. Nine of the 10 top-performing specialty titles came out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Neon chief Tom Quinn, who bought Three Identical Strangers at Sundance, says there was no better advertising for his doc, directed by Tim Wardle, than to play trailers in front of RBG and Won’t You Be My…
The swift collapse of Donald Tang’s Global Road Entertainment — from grand hype to near bankruptcy in less than a year — is the latest blow to the deteriorating relationship between Hollywood and China. Tang, a former chairman at Bear Stearns Asia, launched Global Road in October with bold claims of leveraging his cross-border deal-making skills to bridge the world’s two largest movie markets. The company’s U.S. film operations were seized by creditors in August, with mass layoffs following. Global Road appears to be teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, while backers on both sides of the Pacific — from Chinese internet giant Tencent to Silicon Valley impresario Neil Shen — may feel burned. The fallout should be of especially urgent concern to the other U.S. mini-studios that were founded…
